Big footprint, small vision

Jaipal Reddy was our guest this Friday for 8220;Ideas Exchange8221;, the weekly interaction between Indian Express journalists and important/interesting newsmakers the full account of the interaction will appear, as usual, in The Sunday Express. I was multitasking a bit 8212; listening to the guest and at the back of my mind wondering, courtesy the demands of this column, whether Aedes or Afzal got more play on TV news. Those management consultants were right 8212; multitasking does help. Reddy, recalling his I038;B minister days, said something about government-owned news television being more autonomous now than when he had started reforming DD in 1997. I quickly multitasked and concluded that while DD news has often proved a reliable source of entertainment, I have never written about it. In a way that8217;s not on. DD has the biggest footprint.

I don8217;t know whether DD news is really more autonomous now than it was in 1997. But I think autonomy is almost beside the point when the journalism DD practices is surreal. Do I038;B ministers watch DD? What do they think of 8212; to take just one example 8212; the morning state round-ups where anchors and reporters joyously mangle the English language while reporting every silly function state ministers and other VIPs have attended? I know I run the risk of being called elitist if I say English-language news cannot be produced by taking extreme liberties with the English language. But barring the efforts of a few DD anchors, the government news channel is a fine demonstration of the state of English language teaching in this country.

What I am trying to get at is that if DD is aiming for the 8220;safe8221;, 8220;non-controversial8221;, news-channel-of-the-record kind of branding, how can better communication abilities on the part of its journalists hurt? The problem with DD is that it looks exactly like what I038;B ministers try to say these days it is not 8212; a sarkari channel. And because DD is so shoddy it misses out what can actually be a niche: serious but interesting programmes on serious but interesting subjects. PBS in America does a magnificent job of this. Watch, if you can, PBS8217;s programmes on American history or popular culture. When DD does a show on Indian culture you feel you would rather watch Star News going seemingly nuts because Harbhajan Singh pushed Murali Karthik or may be it was the other way round in a first-class cricket match.

I went goggle-eyed as Star News replayed the 8220;shove8221; every few seconds. Then Sandeep Patil came on to offer his take on what the channel obviously considered a hugely important piece of sports news. The anchor was terribly excited. News selection on private television can sometimes leave you stupefied. But even on those occasions you don8217;t turn to DD. That8217;s something for I038;B ministers to think of.